Market Access A Focus Of The New Farm Bill, Newhouse Notes

A lot has changed in farm country since Congress adopted the most recent Farm Bill in 2018.  And while elements of the Farm Bill legislation were addressed in the Big Beautiful Bill approved over the summer, there were still key pieces that were missing.

Central Washington's Dan Newhouse said Farm Bill 2.0, recently approved by the House Ag Committee addresses one of those areas; overseas marketing.  Newhouse, a member of the House Ag Committee, said lawmakers doubled the amount of funds going to the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program, which are so important for local growers to be competitive.

Newhouse added as overseas competition for products grown in the Northwest intensifies, efforts to market American products needs to grow as well.

“For us to be able to step up the ability for producers to promote our products throughout the world is key to being competitive," Newhouse said.  "And so by by doubling the amount of resources being made available to the specialty crop producers to accomplish that kind of work. That's going to be huge and that's going to, I think, enhance the foreign markets that we have in existence and also build new ones, which is so important.”

Newhouse added this additional FMD and MAP funding will help keep the Northwest and American Ag industries as strong as possible.

Click Here to learn more about Farm Bill 2.0.

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